The SNP And The EU – We Have The UK Surrounded

Just a quick post to note the latest – unprecedented – polling numbers for the SNP, reported in the Herald Scotland over the weekend:

“SUPPORT for the SNP has risen to an all-time high and Alex Salmond’s popularity has increased, while Labour’s decline in Scotland has continued, according to the latest survey.

An Ipsos MORI poll shows that 51% of those certain to vote would back the SNP in an election to the Scottish Parliament, up two percentage points from its last poll in August and six points from May’s election.

Support for Labour stands at 26%, down two points from the group’s August poll, while backing for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats remains largely unchanged, at 12% and 8% respectively.

Mr Salmond also continues to rate well, with three in five voters (62%) satisfied with his performance as First Minister compared to 27% who say they are dissatisfied, giving him a net satisfaction rating of plus 35%, up one point from the last poll in April.”

Meanwhile Alex Salmond smells blood in the air as David Cameron walks away from the hucksters and shysters of the EU, giving Wee Eck the opportunity to take a nip at the British PM’s heels, as the BBC notes:

“First Minister Alex Salmond has written to the prime minister asking him to explain why he vetoed European Union treaty changes.

He accused David Cameron of “blundering” into altering the UK’s relationship with the EU.

Mr Salmond is worried about the impact the decision could have on Scotland.

The SNP leader has asked Mr Cameron to attend an “urgent” meeting of the devolved governments to explain why they were not consulted.

A Downing Street spokesperson said the PM would respond in “due course”.

The spokesperson added: “This does seem to be an opportunistic attempt to deflect attention from some serious questions the Scottish government has been asked about its currency, fiscal and monetary proposals for an independent Scotland and has so far failed to answer.”

At a summit in Brussels on Friday, Mr Cameron blocked changes to the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which were aimed at addressing the euro crisis and preventing a repeat in the future.

He and Chancellor George Osborne have insisted the veto was in part to protect the City of London from excessive intervention by Europe, but Labour and the UK Independence Party (UKIP) have both argued that actually no additional safeguards were achieved.

The treaty changes needed the support of all 27 EU members – including those not in the euro, such as the UK – to go ahead.

In his letter, Mr Salmond demanded answers to “crucial questions” on the decision.

Mr Salmond also asked about press reports that Mr Cameron’s negotiating stance was based on “big internal problems” that agreeing to the Treaty change would present.

The first minister said: “It is an extraordinary state of affairs that while the Scottish government and our agencies were working hard to promote Scotland’s interests and industries in China, David Cameron was blundering into apparently changing the UK’s entire relationship with the European Union – without even discussing it with his own Lib Dem coalition colleagues, never mind the devolved administrations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

“Given that David Cameron took it upon himself to isolate the UK in Europe – from non-euro and the euro members alike – and without a word of consultation, he now needs to answer six key questions about the implications for Scotland of what he has done.

“As the price of playing to his own backbenchers, the prime minister now leads a riven administration – with zero credibility in EU negotiations across the range of policy areas where Scotland’s interests are crucially affected.

“Last week’s developments in Brussels demonstrate that Scotland urgently needs a voice at the top table when our vital national interests are being discussed, by becoming an independent member state, instead of being shut out of the room.”

Here’s an interesting new dilemma for a revenant United Kingdom to face sometime in the future. A euro-trading continent to the south, a euro-trading Scandinavia to the east, a euro-trading Ireland to the west – and a euro-trading Scotland to the north?

Where then the pound and the City of London?

For those British nationalists clinging on to the desperate hope that the European Union would automatically reject an independent Scotland from the EU… Hmm. Think again…

Comments

Scotland has always had a better relationship with Europe than England so it is just Brit Nat scaremongering that somehow Europe would not want Scotland.
The Scare stories don’t work any more and they know it! Hence all the panic from the Colonialists now. demanding a referendum immediately.
As for another of their scare stories that border posts would be put up between England and Scotland, all nonsense of course.. If border posts were to be erected after Scots independence, it would most likely be the Scots who would want to do that, to stop the huge influx of English economic migrants! ;)